Posts tagged “Electric NoNo”

Let us welcome in 2019 by enjoying this enjoyingly trippy “GIF-style” official music video for “Intergalactic” from Seattle stalwarts Electric NoNo:

“Intergalactic” is from Electric NoNo’s most recent release, the EP Cool Cool. You can get it on the Bandcamps!

Hooray! An enjoyment has occurred.

Cool Cool by Electric NoNo (2018) ★★★½

What’s that? Are those the dulcet tones of the Cortese Brothers, Jared y Dominic, of Electric NoNo fame?

Nay, it can’t be, I say! For they released a collection of music naught but 18 months (or thereabouts ago). And everyone knows that it takes years and years and years and years for Electric NoNo to release new musics.

But my ears do not deceive me, nor do mine eyes: Electric NoNo have released two sets of music in two consecutive calendar years! I do declare: It’s a miracle there.

Yes, it’s true: here are six more songs of rock’n’roll goodness for us to… wait, only six songs? You mean this is just another EP, not a full-length album!

GOSH DANGIT ELECTRIC NONO! Why you gotta play me like that!?

Seriously, though, if your main complaint about a band is that they don’t release enough awesome music, then that’s pretty durned good.

Cool Cool pivots significantly from their previous release, Rain City Blue. Rain City Blue was a much spacier, more complicated EP. Cool Cool kind of strips all of that back so it’s just pure, fuzzed-up rock. And it makes sense; Rain City Blue was produced by the equally spacey and etherial Julia Massey, whereas Cool Cool was produced by Adam Prairie of the Hoot Hoots. Therefore it sounds much more like the Hoot Hoots than it does Julia Massey.

And it’s really very good rock. A standout is “Chased by Crows,” which Jared and Dom have been playing live for YEARS, so it’s nice to finally have a permanent record of it:

Strangely, the opening song of the album is Rain City Blue, which is the name of a different album. (??)

The finale, “Dreary Place,” is also a very good down-tempo ballad, which repeats just a single verse a few times. Anyone who lives in the Pacific Northwest will get a kick out of it.

The rest of the four songs are also very good, but none of them have the stand-out quality that, say, “Holiday” or “40 Foot Tall” (songs from Electric NoNo’s previous two EPs) have.

A minor quibble I have about Cool Cool is that (for my personal tastes) the guitars are mixed too quietly into the final mix. When you see Electric NoNo live, Jared’s guitar is right there in your freakin’ face. It’s like a second vocalist. But in Cool Cool there are some times where you have Jared singing right in your face and Dom banging the drums right behind him, but then it sounds like the guitar is being played by someone in the next room over. Maybe it got overproduced and washed out a little? I dunno, I ain’t no engineer or nuttin’.

So to conclude: too few songs, too-quiet guitar. Otherwise: excellent. Here’s the whole album to partake and enjoy:

Seriously, guys, you’ve been a band for about like years and you’ve only put out TWO full-length albums! C’mon, we’re starvin’ over here!

This Saturday, March 24th, Mosey on over to Georgetown (SOSODO (South of South of Downtown) and catch a foot-stompin’ good show with our good friends, the brothers Cortese of Electric NoNo, as they put on what the kids these days call “a show” (I’m 40 years old, I have no idea what the kids these days call things).

Here’s an official Electric NoNo video. Partake and enjoy!

Also at the show will be Stereo Creeps (I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never heard them) and Suitcase (neither).

Details:
Stereo Creeps, Suitcase, & Electric Nono (Bandsintown Event)
@ Slim’s Last Chance Chili Shack & Watering Hole (website)
5606 1st Ave S, Seattle, WA 98108 (map)
Saturday, March 24th 9:00 PM
$??, 21+

Slim’s Last Chance, by the way, was featured on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (presumably in the “Dives” category). Also, Colin Farrell really liked it there:

SO CAN YOU!

Hey, folks, if’n you just so happen to be in Austin, TX for the South by Southwest festival this year, you should head over to The Local Pub & Patio TONIGHT (Friday 3/16) to enjoy some of the best music that Seattle bands have to offer in the “Seattle X Southwest” showcase. Just look at this lineup!

Especially exciting is the inclusion of close personal friends Electric NoNo, going onstage at 5:45 PM! Here’s a quick reminder of how awexome they are (though if you read this website you prolly already know):

Details:
Seattle X Southwest (Faced Book Event)
Friday, March 16th 4:45 PM
@ The Local Pub & Patio
2610 Guadalupe St, Austin, TX 78705-4009 (map)
Free Admission, All-Ages until 7:00

Let’s all feel this Austin/Seattle synergy love!

Warren Dunes, the supergroup that exists when you mash together the two best Seattle bands in existence right now: Julia Massey & the Five Finger Discount and Electric NoNo (though drummer Dom Cortese already played for both groups, so it’s really not that much of a stretch), has released an official single!

You want to listen to it? No, no, no, that shouldn’t be a question. You WANT to listen to it:

There’s also a very nice interview over at Artist Home, so you should read that. It includes the very exciting tidbit that a full Warren Dunes EP album is coming this October!

As a TacoMan, I’m very pleased that there is going to be some excellent live musics in our town this coming weekend. It’s the return of the Squeak & Squawk Music Festival, an absurdly sporadic happening over the past 10 years (I think it’s been about 5 years since the last one).

And on Friday night, our good friends Electric NoNo are going to be playing at The Valley near the Tacoma Dome! That promises to be some kickass musics like this:

Also, LAKE will be performing on Saturday at an all-ages show at the Courthouse Square Ballroom. LAKE (it must be all-caps like that) is fronted by Ashley Eriksson, who you may know as the woman who made the end credits song for Adventure Time. Take a listen:

I betcha didn’t know she was a local, didja?

Anyways, there’s a buncha other musics happening from Thursday through Monday at various venues around town, so there’ll probably be at least someone you’ll wanna listen to. You can see the full lineup on Squeak & Squawk’s event page on the Faced Book. I’ll for-sure be at The Valley this Friday! SO CAN YOU!

Details:
Squeak & Squawk: Electric NoNo (Faced Book Event)
Friday, June 23rd 8:00 PM
@ The Valley
1206 Puyallup Ave, Tacoma, WA 98421 (map)
21+, only $5

Last Friday, Carrie & I were honored to be on a very short guest list of a very private show in Seattle: the debut of the brand-new supergroup Warren Dunes.

Warren Dunes is the smooshing together of Seattle stalwart bands Julia Massey and the Five Finger Discount and Electric NoNo. This turns out not to be too difficult of a feat, since Electric NoNo is only a two-man band, and drummer Dom Cortese is also the drummer for JM+FFD. So, basically, you take JM+FFD and add Electric NoNo guitarist Jared Cortese to it and voila you’ve got yourself a Warren Dunes.

First things first, though. This invite-only concert was held at Earwig Studios, the locale where the likes of Julia Massey, Electric NoNo, and Gentlemen of Leisure have laid down tracks. It also just happens to have an antechamber that is decorated to look exactly like the black lodge from Twin Peaks.

Opening act was the sweet acoustic stylings of Reggie Garrett:

You should really go check out his musics. Good stuffs.

Second act was the first-ever Seattle performance of my pals the Gentlemen of Leisure!

It was great to see them live for the first time. I was able to make an animated .GIF of ’em!

The headliners were, of course, Warren Dunes. Here’s their first-ever animated .GIF!

I honestly expected the Warren Dunes sound to be more of a direct result of smooshing the Five Finger Discount and Electric NoNo together, but it was very heavily weighted towards Julia’s sound. Jared doesn’t even provide any vocals, which was very surprising. It sounded much like the Five Finger Discount plus an electric guitar.

Which is to say it sounded frikkin’ great. Just not at all what I was expecting.

You can hear the Warren Dunes sound in this video of them performing their song “War Cry” (recorded earlier, not at this show):

I’m excited to hear more of them! I just don’t wanna hafta wait for an album to come out! I = impatient for good musics!